104 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc, 



DAIRY PRECEPT AND DAIRY PRACTICE. 



BY DR. JOSEPH L. HILLS, BURLINGTON, VT. 



It is apt to be alleged of experiment station workers, by 

 those Avho are not in sympathy with them, that their ideas 

 are impractical, their deductions ill-adapted to every-day 

 usage. Even the friends of the movement at times are given 

 to the same criticism. The current issue of the Experiment 

 Station Record, the monthly publication of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, which reviews the agricultural 

 science work of the world, voices this proposition in the 

 opening sentences of its leading editorial, as follows : — 



The statement is made that scientists often retard the prog- 

 ress of general and industrial science by their impractical views 

 of practical affairs. The idea is not that investigation should 

 be confined to utilitarian lines, . . . but . . . that . . . more 

 rapid and surer progress would be made if investigators brought 

 to their work more practical knowledge of its economic rela- 

 tions. 



It further remarks that : — 



A large body of people continue to distinguish between what 

 to them is theoretical or pure science, and what is applied 

 science. To such, Doctor Jordan's estimate of the value of 

 science, that it "lies in its relation to human conduct," and 

 of the value of knowledge that it " lies in the use we can make 

 of it," will come as a vindication of a possibly unformulated 

 conviction. 



In oth(!r words, there is a popular demand for fruitage 

 from the tree of knowledge. Now, as of old, to secure and 

 to retain popular favor and public funds, scientific work 

 must be "disguised [to some extent] under a utilitarian 



